Registration as a new self-employed (Neue Selbständige) person in Austria
- Severina Ditzov
- Jun 27, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 24
In this article, you will learn about:
The first step toward setting up your business is to make sure you fall under the right category of self-employment. This article is dedicated to those who want to take the next step and register as new self-employed (Neue Selbständige) in Austria.
In general, there are two ways of dealing with registration as a new self-employed (Neue Selbständige) person in Austria: online (the recommended way, as it gives you access to all the online authority channels) and the traditional way of sending a form by mail. If you’ve already decided on the way you’re going to register, you can just jump to whichever section below is more relevant for you.
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Deadline for registration
You officially become self-employed the moment you start conducting a business classified as self-employment.
Registration works as a notification to all the relevant authorities that you have started your activity. It’s your duty to register, and there are certain deadlines as well as penalties for missing them.
For new self-employed, it’s mandatory to register at the Austrian Tax Office (Finanzamt) and the Austrian Insurance Institution for self-employed (SVS). In both cases, the deadline is 4 weeks from starting the professional activity. Our recommendation is to do it right away because the process sometimes requires waiting for some activation letters (e.g., Finanzonline account, ID Austria).
Besides all that, you should remember that registering and clarifying your situation with the relevant authorities doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have any insurance or tax-related costs. Right now we are only talking about your duty of notifying the relevant authorities, which in case of new self-employment are the Tax Office and the SVS.
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Registration online
Tax Office
If you have an Austrian social security number, you can go ahead and register at the tax office. If you don’t have it yet, though, you have to register at the tax office through the form Verf 24 or start your registration with point 4 - the SVS, then the tax Office and then point 3 - mobile signature (currently the online registration form at the website of the Tax Office requires filling-out a security number).
